LG Becomes 3rd in Korea to Employ 100,000-plus Staff

The LG Group is the country’s third conglomerate to employ more than 100,000 staff after the Samsung Group and the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group.

LG said yesterday that it will hire 10,000 workers this year to raise the number of people on its payroll to 106,000.

Samsung exceeded the figure of 100,000 in the early 1980s, with its number reaching some 180,000 this year. Korea’s top conglomerate had 277,000 staff as of the end of 2008.

Workers at Samsung’s financial units had accounted for the large percentage in the 1980s, but Samsung Electronics now boasts the most staff in the group.

Hyundai-Kia has some 120,000 executives and employees in its domestic operations alone. Some 90,000 are employed by Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, while another 10,000 work at the conglomerate’s financial units, including Hyundai Card and Hyundai Capital.

LG has is increasing its workforce largely because of its chairman’s instruction to never spare a penny in investing in human resources and the group’s mission of creating jobs as part of its social responsibility.

LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo said in his New Year’s speech that the conglomerate should try to secure good talent while developing leading technologies and investing in new business areas.

The number of LG executives and employees rose from 84,000 in 2007 to 97,000 last year. The conglomerate plans to hire some 10,000 workers this year, up from about 5,000 in 2007.

Among LG’s units, LG Display, one of the world’s biggest makers of LCD panels, will hire 4,600 people this year.

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